Invited Speakers

John Burn

Professor Sir John Burn obtained an MD with distinction, a first class honours degree in human genetics from Newcastle University, where he has been Professor of Clinical Genetics since 1991 and a consultant specialist since 1984.

He led the regional NHS Genetics Service for 20 years and helped to create the Centre for Life which houses an education and science centre alongside the Institute of Genetic Medicine and Northgene Ltd, the identity testing company he launched in 1995.

He chairs DNA device company QuantuMDx.

He was knighted in 2010, chosen as one of the first 20 'local heroes' to have a brass plaque on Newcastle Quayside in 2014.

He received the Living North award in 2015 for services to the North East 2000 – 2015. He is also Executive Chairman of the international organisation, the Human Variome Project, which seeks to share knowledge of genetic variation for clinical benefit. In 2017, John became Chairman of the Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

Evelien Dekker

Professor Dr Evelien Dekker is a board-qualified gastroenterologist at the Department of Gastroenterology & Hepatology of the Academic Medical Centre at the University of Amsterdam. She graduated from the same university, and obtained her PhD in 1996 at the same university. She received her training in Internal Medicine and Gastroenterology at the Academic Medical Centre. Dr Dekker joined the AMC-staff in 2005 and is head of the multidisciplinary clinic for hereditary colorectal cancer and medical director of an expert colonoscopy centre at the AMC. She is actively involved in the national screening program for colorectal cancer since more than 10 years, for which she has been awarded a honourable "Pearl" by ZonMW.

Her research focuses on quality and new techniques in colonoscopy, population screening and surveillance for colorectal cancer, and treatment and surveillance of familial cancer and polyposis syndromes. She was appointed as a professor in GI Oncology at the University of Amsterdam in 2013, and has supervised 25 students for a PhD-thesis. She has co-authored over 250 scientific articles and has chaired and participated in several national and international guidelines.

Michael Hall

Dr Michael Hall is the Interim Chair of the Department of Clinical Genetics at Fox Chase Cancer Center (FCCC), Philadelphia PA and is an Associate Professor of Medicine in the FCCC gastrointestinal oncology and cancer prevention and control programs. He is a trained health services researcher and clinical cancer geneticist.

He received his undergraduate and medical degrees from Columbia University in New York City.

He went on to complete an internal medicine residency at Harvard's Brigham and Women's hospital and a fellowship in Hematology/Oncology at the University of Chicago where he established a clinical and research focus in GI cancers and genetic risk and earned a Master's degree in health services research.

His current research includes the study of patient attitudes and preferences toward hereditary risk assessment and testing, novel methods to communicate of high risk information within families, and collaborative research in gene discovery and large testing database analyses. He is the recipient of individual and collaborative research funding from the Chemotherapy Foundation, the Greenwall Foundation, the American Cancer Society, and the National Cancer Institute.

Magnus von Knebel Doeberitz, MD

Magnus von Knebel Doeberitz is Professor of Molecular Oncology and Medical Director of the Department of Applied Tumor Biology, Institute of Pathology of the University of Heidelberg. He is also head of the Clinical Cooperation Unit G105 of the German Cancer Research Center and is affiliated with the Molecular Medicine Partner Unit of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL).

After graduating from medical school in 1984 he spent his post doc in the laboratory of the later Nobel laureate Harald zur Hausen at the German Cancer Research Center. In 2001 he was appointed as Medical Director of the Department of Applied Tumour Biology at the Institute of Pathology, University of Heidelberg.

He coauthored more than 280 peer-reviewed articles. He is associate editor of the International Journal of Cancer and member of the editorial boards of various other prestigious oncology journals.

He received numerous scientific awards and served as founder, advisor and board member of several biotech companies.

Heather Hampel, MS, LGC

Heather Hampel completed her Bachelor of Science degree in Molecular Genetics at the Ohio State University in 1993. She attained her Master's degree in Human Genetics from Sarah Lawrence College in 1995. She received certification from the American Board of Genetic Counseling in 1996. She worked as a cancer genetic counselor at Memorial Sloan- Kettering Cancer Center before moving to The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center (OSUCCC) in 1997.

Currently, Heather is a Professor in the Department of Internal Medicine and Associate Director of the Division of Human Genetics. She is also the Associate Director of Biospecimen Research for the OSUCCC.

She was the study coordinator for the Columbus-area Lynch syndrome study which determined the frequency of Lynch syndrome among newly diagnosed patients with these cancers. This study culminated in first author publications in the New England Journal of Medicine in May of 2005, Cancer Research in August of 2006, and the Journal of Clinical Oncology in December of 2008.

She is now the PI of the Ohio Colorectal Cancer Prevention Initiative which is screening colorectal cancer patients from 50 hospitals throughout the state for hereditary cancer syndromes. The first major publication from that study showing that 16% of early-onset colorectal cancers are hereditary was published in 2017 in JAMA Oncology.

Heather Hampel was the Region IV Representative on the Board of Directors of the National Society of Genetic Counselors in 2003-4. She was on the Board of Directors for the American Board of Genetic Counseling from 2006-2011, serving as President in 2009 and 2010. She was elected to the Steering Committee member of the National Colorectal Cancer Roundtable in 2016. She has been on the Council of the Collaborative Group of the Americas on Inherited Colorectal Cancer since 2016 and is currently the President.

Ian Bissett

Ian Bissett is Professor and previous Head of Surgery at the University of Auckland and Consultant Colorectal Surgeon at Auckland City Hospital. He served as President and the Colorectal Surgical Society of Australia and New Zealand from 2011-2013 and is the chair of the New Zealand National Bowel Cancer Working Group and sits on the Bowel Screening Advisory Group. His particular interests include rectal cancer, gut motility and Global Surgery.

Daniel Buchanan

Associate Professor Daniel Buchanan is Principal Research Fellow in the Department of Clinical Pathology, Melbourne Medial School and Head of the Colorectal Oncogenomics Laboratory Group within the University of Melbourne Centre for Cancer Research residing within the Victorian Comprehensive Cancer Centre. He received his PhD in Molecular Genetics (2010) from the University of Queensland. He was recruited to Melbourne in 2014 under the University of Melbourne Research at Melbourne Accelerator Program (R@MAP) scheme. He holds an honorary appointment within the Genomic Medicine and Familial Cancer Centre at the Royal Melbourne Hospital, where he works with Clinical Geneticists and Genetic Counsellors to translate his research findings into improved cancer prevention and treatment. In 2017 he was awarded NHMRC R.D. Wright Biomedical Career Development Fellowship.

He has >170 peer-reviewed publications on various aspects of colorectal cancer aetiology, genetic susceptibility and hereditary cancer syndromes. He is a member of the scientific advisory board of the Lynch Syndrome Australia organisation. He is the Co-Principal investigator of the Australasian Colorectal Cancer Family Registry, a member of the steering committee for the International Colon Cancer Family Registry Cohort (Colon-CFR). He leads a multidisciplinary team spanning molecular genetics and cell biology, bioinformatics, pathology, epidemiology, clinical genetics and biobanking. He leads a number of large, well-characterised and internationally unique cohorts including: 1) The ANGELS study (Applying Novel Genomic approaches to Early-onset and suspected Lynch Syndrome colorectal and endometrial cancers), 2) The Genetics of Colonic Polyposis Study (GCPS), and 3) Sebaceous skin lesions and Lynch syndrome (Muir-Torre Study).

Gabriel Capella

Gabriel Capella is Director of the Hereditary Cancer Program at the Catalan Institute of Oncology. He trained as a general and digestive surgeon in Barcelona, and is also accredited in Human Genetics by the Spanish Society of Human Genetics. His research focuses in the study of the genetic basis of gastrointestinal cancer with a particular interest in hereditary colorectal cancer.

James Church

James Church was born and raised in New Zealand, attending Auckland Medical School and then entering surgical training.

In 1983 he began a colorectal fellowship at the Cleveland Clinic and in 1989 he joined the Staff. He retired in 2016 and is currently Contract Staff. He held the Victor W. Fazio Chair and recently stepped down as Director of the Sanford R. Weiss Center for Hereditary Colorectal Neoplasia. He has been Chairman of the Leeds Castle Polyposis Group and the International Collaborative Group on HNPCC and founded the Collaborative Group of the Americas for Inherited Colorectal Cancer.

Dr Church was Co-Editor of Diseases of the Colon and Rectum for 10 years, Vice President of ASCRS and received the Distinguished Alumni Award from the University of Auckland. He is a Fellow of the American Surgical Association and several other Professional Societies. The sole author of 2 textbooks, editor of several, and author or co-author of over 370 peer-reviewed articles.

Sue Clark

Sue Clark is a Consultant Colorectal Surgeon at St Mark's Hospital, Harrow, UK and Professor of Practice (Colorectal Surgery) at Imperial College, London. She is also Director of the St Mark's Hospital Polyposis Registry and Dean of the St Mark's Academic Institute. She was an elected member of InSiGHT council 2009-13, and now leads the InSiGHT secretariat as Administrative Officer.

Since completing her thesis on desmoids in FAP, she has continued active research in the polyposis syndromes, supervising several PhDs and authoring over 50 papers in the field. She is a member of the Royal College of Surgeons of England Commission on the Future of Surgery, with the remit of Genomic Medicine.

Massimiliano di Pietro

I have qualified from Federico II University of Naples, Italy, where I completed my speciality training in Gastroenterology in 2007. I have obtained an MD at the Institute of Molecular Cancer Research (University of Zurich, Switzerland), where I studied transcriptional signatures in colon cancers with microsatellite instability.

I am senior clinical investigator scientist at the MRC Cancer Unit, University of Cambridge and Honorary Consultant Gastroenterologist at Addenbrooke's Hospital. I provide regional referral for endoscopic treatment of pre-cancerous and early malignant conditions of the upper GI tract, including endoscopic mucosal resection, endoscopic submucosal dissection and Radiofrequency Ablation. I have a research interest in oesophageal and gastric pathologies, including Barrett's oesophagus, oesophageal and gastric cancer and reflux disease. In particular, my scientific focus is in advanced endoscopic imaging, endoscopic therapies and molecular biomarkers for cancer risk stratification. I am co-editor of the 2014 BSG guidelines for management of Barrett's oesophagus and have authored several peer-reviewed publications, book chapters and review articles in the field Barrett's oesophagus and oesophageal adenocarcinoma. I am also part of the International Consortium for Hereditary Diffuse Gastric Cancer.

I have two boys and enjoy cycling to work, skiing and playing tennis and football.

Kimberley Gamet

Kimberley began her career as a Genetic Counsellor in the UK in 1999. She has a background in nursing and psychology. She gained UK registration as a Genetic Counsellor in 2005 and certified as an Australasian Genetic Counsellor in 2007 following her move to New Zealand in 2006. She is the Senior Genetic Counsellor and Team Leader of the Northern Hub of Genetic Health Service New Zealand.

Ian Frayling

Ian qualified in Clinical Medicine at Cambridge. After initial training in all branches of pathology, he studied DNA repair for his PhD. He is the only Genetic Pathologist in NHS service, at the Institute of Medical Genetics, Cardiff.

Ian was the Family Cancer Clinic Research Fellow at St Mark's Hospital, 1993-1998. He now concentrates on variant interpretation, genotype-phenotype correlations and systematic testing of incident cancers to identify hereditary cases. He is a Fellow of the Royal College of Pathologists, a UK National External Quality Assessor of MMR IHC, an Honorary Senior Clinical Research Fellow at Cardiff University, and a Visiting CI at Cancer Council New South Wales. He is a co-author on the upcoming 5th Edition of the WHO/IARC Classification of Tumours "Blue Books" series. (orcid.org/0000-0002-3420-0794)

Ian is also a member of InSiGHT Council and the Variant Interpretation Committee; a member of CGAICC; the steering group of the Prospective Lynch Syndrome Database; an Honorary Medical Adviser to Lynch Syndrome UK; and Treasurer of the UK Cancer Genetics Group, inter alia.

In 2017, Ian was conferred with Honorary Fellowship of the Faculty of Pathology of the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland in recognition of his outstanding lifetime contribution to the practice of pathology and received the Association of Clinical Pathologists' Dyke Foundation Medal. He will deliver the Goudie Medal lecture in January 2019 at the Pathological Society's Winter Meeting.

Maurizio Genuardi

Maurizio Genuardi is Professor of Medical Genetics and Director of the Institute of Medical Genomics at the Catholic University, and Director of Medical Genetics Services at Policlinico Agostino Gemelli University Hospital in Rome. He has chaired the InSiGHT Variant Interpretation Committee since 2007, and coordinated the Cancer Genetics Working Group of the Italian Societ of Human Genetics (SIGU) 2012-15 and is the President Elect of SIGU.

Parry Guilford

Professor Parry Guilford is Director of the Cancer Genetics Laboratory and the Centre for Translational Cancer Research (Te Aho Matatū) at the University of Otago. He is a co-founder of the publically listed biotechnology company Pacific Edge Ltd and a Deputy Director of the Healthier Lives National Science Challenge. His current research interests include the genetics of inherited and sporadic cancers, in particular stomach cancer. Other active research areas are the development of genomic-based diagnostic tools for early cancer detection and personalised medicine.

Nicoline Hoogerbrugge

Prof Nicoline Hoogerbrugge, MD, PhD, is full professor in hereditary cancer at Radboud University Medical Center, Nijmegen, The Netherlands. Her ambition is to improve detection, diagnosis and treatment of hereditary cancer and prevent cancer in relatives. She is the coordinator of the European Reference Network on Genetic Tumour Risk Syndromes (ERN GENTURIS) (www.genturis.eu).

Over the last 5 years, her work has mainly focused on the implementation of current knowledge in hereditary cancer and finding new genetic factors for gastrointestinal cancer.

Her research in the past 5 years resulted in:

Detection of various new genetic risk factors for gastrointestinal cancer

Mark Jenkins

Professor Jenkins is the Director of the Centre for Epidemiology & Biostatistics at the University of Melbourne. He is an epidemiologist with 20 years' experience in the design, conduct, and analysis of studies examining the role of genetic and environmental causes of colorectal cancer. He has a long-term research focus in estimating the risk, and modifiers of risk of colorectal and other cancers in Lynch Syndrome. He is prinicpal Investigator of NIH funded international Colon Cancer Family Registry Cohort, and he is the Chief Investigator of the worldwide study of Lynch Syndrome called the International Mismatch Repair Consortium (IMRC). He is also a member of the Clinical Advisory Group for the Australian National Breast Cancer Screening Program.

Matthew Kalady

Dr. Matthew Kalady is a Professor of Surgery at Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, Ohio. He graduated cum laude from Harvard College and received his medical doctorate from Duke University. He completed his general surgery training at Duke University Medical Center and subsequently completed a colorectal surgery fellowship at Cleveland Clinic. He holds the James Church MD and Edward DeBartolo Jr. Family Endowed Chair in Colorectal Surgery, is the Co-Director of the Cleveland Clinic Comprehensive Colorectal Cancer Program, and is the Director of the Sanford R.Weiss, MD, Center for Hereditary Colorectal Neoplasia.

He is on the editorial board of Diseases of the Colon and Rectum, and Annals of Surgical Oncology. He also has an NIH/NCI-funded basic science research laboratory focusing on colorectal cancer genetics. His main clinical interests are colorectal cancer, hereditary syndromes, and minimally invasive surgery.

John Keating

John Keating is an English and Australasian trained colorectal surgeon working in Wellington. Previously a senior lecturer at the Wellington School of Medicine and a consultant at Wellington Hospital he is now in private practice. He has published widely on many aspects of colorectal surgery. He is a medical advisor at the Wellington office of the New Zealand Familial Gastrointestinal Cancer Service.

Andrew Latchford

Andrew Latchford is Consultant Gastroenterologist at St Mark's Hospital and Honorary Senior Lecturer at Imperial College, London. He is Assistant Director of the St Mark's Hospital Polyposis Registry and currently supervises research on upper GI tract disease in polyposis syndromes, pouch polyps in FAP, serrated polyposis syndrome and identification/management outcomes in Lynch Syndrome. He was an expert advisor to NICE in the development of guidelines of universal tumour MMR testing.

Patrick Lynch

Patrick Lynch is Professor of Medicine, Department of Gastroenterology, Hepatology, Nutrition, University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Centre. He has been a member of InSiGHT since its inception and was Co-chair 2009-11. He was a member of the predecessor organisations, the LCPG and ICG-HNPCC. His current interest is the development of a web-based platform for communication of risk information within mutation-positive families. He ran the 2016 New York Marathon to raise funds for InSiGHT.

Finlay Macrae

Finlay Macrae is Professor in the Department of Medicine, University of Melbourne, Australia and Head of Colorectal Medicine and Genetics at The Royal Melbourne Hospital. He was a founding member of the antecedent Leeds Castle Polyposis Group, and instigated creation of the InSiGHT MMR database, its Variant Interpretation Committee, and the association with the Human Variome Project.

Gabriela Moeslein

Professor Moeslein is Professor of Surgery and Director of the Center for Hereditary Tumours, Helios University Hospital. She chaired the biennial InSiGHT meeting in 2009 in Düsseldorf. She is a founding member of the IMRC (International Mismatch Repair Consortium) and external advisor of InSiGHT for the CFR (Cancer Family Registries) She is also a founding member of the German Consortium for HNPCC and Steering Committee member.

In September 2017 she has been appointed General Secretary of ESCP. She is founding Director of the EHTG (European Hereditary Tumor Group) Her research activities focus on hereditary predisposition to cancer, prophylactic surgery for hereditary conditions, ileoanal and Kock pouches and chemoprevention.

Christophe Rosty

Dr Christophe Rosty is a medical graduate of the University Necker, Paris, France. After time as a Medical Registrar in Gastroenterology, he completed his training in Anatomical Pathology in 1997. Having an early interest in gastrointestinal and liver disease, he completed his PhD in Paris and developed his expertise in the molecular pathology of gastrointestinal cancers. Dr Rosty has completed a 2-year Research Fellowship in the Department of Gastrointestinal Pathology at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, USA.

He moved to Brisbane, Australia, in 2009 and currently works as a Specialist Pathologist at Envoi Pathology, a pathology practice exclusively dedicated to gastro-intestinal and liver pathology with strong teaching and academic activities. He is an Associate Professor at The University of Queensland and an Honorary Senior Research Fellow in the Colorectal Oncogenomics Group at The University of Melbourne.

His ongoing research interests include the genetics and the molecular pathology of colorectal neoplasms with the inter-disciplinary relationship to epidemiology, and polyposis syndromes, in particular Lynch syndrome and serrated polyposis. His recent publications have focused on the molecular classification of colorectal cancer and the understanding of polyposis syndromes.

Christopher Wakeman

Chris Wakeman is a General Surgeon/Colorectal surgeon with research interests in familial bowel cancer and polyposis disorders, and colorectal cancer treatment and outcomes.

Chris graduated from Otago University Medical School in 1996 and completed general surgical training in Christchurch, gaining his Fellowship of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons in 2007.

He spent two years training in colorectal surgery as a CSSANZ fellow in Melbourne, Australia at the Alfred hospital and then at the Royal Melbourne Hospital.

He was then awarded the Murray and Unity Pheils Travel Fellowship to travel to London to train for a further year at St Marks hospital.

Chris returned to Christchurch in early 2011 to an appointment at Christchurch Hospital as a general and colorectal surgeon.

Shortly afterwards he was appointed as medical advisor to the familial gastrointestinal cancer registry.

In 2013, he was awarded a Scholarship from the American College of Surgeons to travel to America.

In 2015, Chris was appointed as a Senior Lecturer for Otago University and is now a course convenor for the 4th Year SEGO (Surgery, Emergency Medicine, Gastroenterology, Oncology) module, and teaches 4th to 6th year medical students.

John Windsor

John Windsor holds a personal chair in Surgery at the University of Auckland and Is Yeoh Ghim Sen Professor at National University of Singapore.

Fellow American Surgical Association, James IV Association of Surgeons and Royal Society of New Zealand. He is an HBP/Upper GI surgeon at the Auckland City Hospital, Director of the Centre for Surgical and Translational Research (encompassing the Applied Surgery and Metabolism Laboratory, Surgical Trials Unit, Surgical Engineering Laboratory and Global Surgery Group), Assistant Director of MedTech Centre of Research Excellence and national chair of HBP Tumour Stream. His primary clinical and research interests are pancreatic diseases.